Bluff Mountain Nature Preserve

Last Wednesday, I was fortunate to get to join a private
tour of Bluff Mountain Nature Preserve. The Nature Conservancy owns this site and
they host tours in spring and fall but they fill up quickly. A friend of mine attended
one of these hikes the previous weekend and learned that he could arrange a
private tour for 10 people for $150. Fortunately, he included me on his email
invitation and I was able to join the group for a tour of this amazing place.

The Nature Conservancy’s website says that Bluff Mountain is
located in the heart of the New River headwaters and is one of the most
ecologically significant natural areas in the Southeast. The natural
communities here are diverse, everything from Carolina hemlock forests to dwarf
red oak-white oak forest to a rare southern Appalachian fen and a unique
flat-rock community. The website further states that Bluff Mountain is home for
over 400 species of plants.

I drove my Jeep up the steep road to where the hiking trails
began, and as soon as we got parked we were greeted by pink lady slippers just
off the trail. We would see about a hundred more on our hike, some of which
were growing right in the path, so we had to watch our step. Our hike began and
we quickly came to an open area full of bright orange Indian paintbrush. There
was also the rare yellow version in bloom here too. After stopping for some
pictures we continued on.

All along the side of the trail were other plants in bloom,
including trillium grandiflorum with its light pink to white bloom, lily of the
valley with its cream-colored bell-shaped flowers, black cohosh and blue cohosh
(the latter not in bloom though), Clinton’s lily, and many others. This
mountain is also home to Gray’s lily, a rare plant that blooms later in the
summer. It is also the only place in the world where Bluff Mountain reindeer
moss grows.

Our guide asked us if we wanted to go see the yellow lady
slipper, which would add about 20 minutes to our hike, and we all eagerly
agreed that we did. We found one a little past bloom, but shortly up the trail
there was a huge grouping of them. Needless to say we all took a lot of
pictures before continuing on. Yellow and pink lady slipper are probably my
favorite wildflowers, so the trip had already been made for me.

We climbed up to a rocky outcrop, and though it was a foggy
day, which obstructed the view, it didn’t matter to me – I came to see the
flowers. From there it was downhill the rest of the way. We came to an old
cabin with a pond in front of it. The family that sold the tract to the Nature
Conservancy has lifetime rights to use that cabin. I could imagine spending an
evening in that botanical paradise sitting around the fire ring taking in the
splendor of my surroundings.

The hike was not over yet though. We hiked to another
viewspot, with an even steeper cliff on the side of the mountain, and could
hear but not see a waterfall from that vantage point. There was a bit of a
break in the clouds at that point and you could see the surrounding forested
landscape.

We came to a hemlock forest with some large, old hemlock
trees. Some of them had died from the hemlock wooly adelgid, but others were
still healthy. From there we went to a very unique glade community, where the
reindeer moss grows. This area is very rocky with thin soil and a variety of
unique plants grow here. The trees here were all small and stunted from growing
in the difficult conditions.

Shortly after that we found ourselves at the natural fen, a
unique wetland area. Our guide said this is the southernmost fen in the United
States. There was more Indian paintbrush and also sundews – a carnivorous plant
with sticky drops of liquid on it to attract and trap insects. Someone had laid
out a small pathway of rocks that allowed us to walk around in the fen
community without damaging it.

Not long after that we found ourselves back at our cars. Our
guide asked if we wanted to hike just a short ways away to see a bunch of
cinnamon fern, which we did. They were a vibrant green with their bright brown
cinnamon stalk-like parts in the middle.
Behind them was the back side of the fen we had just walked through.
From there we went back to our cars and made it back down the mountain to West
Jefferson in time to eat at my favorite bakery there, which just capped off a
wonderful trip. If you get an opportunity to hike at Bluff Mountain don’t pass
it up. I promise you’ll have a one-of-a-kind experience to see so much
diversity in one place. I can’t wait for my next trip to see what else blooms at
this natural wonderland.